Category Archives: Technology

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Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon

I’ve always found the idea behind corporate hackathons to be questionable, but this is a hackathon I can get behind.

Some of my favorites:

“Unfriend the Poors by JB Rubinovitz is a free service that helps you ferret out and then unfriend your poor friends on Facebook.”

3D Cheese Printer. “Hightech 3D cheese prints, by Tyler Erdman, Morgan Steward, David Leach, Brian Wu, Andy Doro and Dano Wall.”

“Mansplain It To Me recreates the experience of asking a question and getting the response from a man who talks to you as though you are a less capable human being. By Cassie Tarakajian and Seth Kranzler.”

“iPad On A Face by Cheryl Wu is a telepresence robot, except it’s a human with an iPad on his or her face.”

Source: Stupid Shit No One Needs & Terrible Ideas Hackathon

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Robots: Destroying jobs, our economy, and possibly the world | Ars Technica

Vardi raised the concerning possibility that an over-reliance on automation and AI could have the same effect on our economy as the Roman dependence on slaves. “Can our economic system deal with labor participation rates below 25 percent? Below 50 percent?” he asked. The solution in ancient Rome, he pointed out, was bread and circuses or life as a legionary.

Source: Robots: Destroying jobs, our economy, and possibly the world | Ars Technica

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Why sarcasm baffles AIs

A new paper from researchers in India and Australia highlights one of the strangest and ironically most humorous facets of the problems in machine learning – humour.

Automatic Sarcasm Detection: A Survey [PDF] outlines ten years of research efforts from groups interested in detecting sarcasm in online sources. The problem is not an abstract one, nor does it centre around the need for computers to entertain or amuse humans, but rather the need to recognise that sarcasm in online comments, tweets and other internet material should not be interpreted as sincere opinion.

The need applies both in order for AIs to accurately assess archive material or interpret existing datasets, and in the field of sentiment analysis, where a neural network or other model of AI seeks to interpret data based on publicly posted web material.

Source: Why sarcasm baffles AIs

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The chips are down for Moore’s law : Nature News & Comment

I think it’s important to remember Ray Kurzweil’s observation that Moore’s Law is simply the most recent in a string of such “laws,” all of which can be summed up as the Law of Accelerating Returns.

The semiconductor industry will soon abandon its pursuit of Moore’s law. Now things could get a lot more interesting.

Source: The chips are down for Moore’s law : Nature News & Comment

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Robots in Health Care Could Lead to a Doctorless Hospital – Singularity HUB

Hospitals will be very different places in 20 years. Beds will be able to move autonomously transporting patients from the emergency room to the operating theatre, via X-ray if needed.

Triage will be done with the assistance of an AI device. Many decisions on treatment will be made with the assistance of, or by, intelligent machines.

Your medical information, including medications, will be read from a chip under your skin or in your phone. No more waiting for medical records or chasing information when an unconscious patient presents to the emergency room.

Robots will be able to dispense medication safely and rehabilitation will be robotically assisted. Only our imaginations can limit how health care will be delivered.

Source: Robots in Health Care Could Lead to a Doctorless Hospital – Singularity HUB

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Apple takes its eye off the ball: Why Apple fans are really coming to hate Apple software – LA Times

I hate to add my voice to the chorus, but this has been my experience as well.  I still love Apple hardware, but the software has gotten progressively worse over the last few years.

The last few weeks have seen an explosion of discontent with the quality of the core apps of Apple’s iPhones, iPads and Mac computers — not only its OS X and iOS operating systems, but programs and services such as iTunes, Music, iCloud and Photos. Not only do the programs work poorly for many users, but they don’t link Apple devices together as reliably as they should. These complaints aren’t coming merely from users but several widely followed tech commentators who used to fit reliably in the category of Apple fans.

Source: Apple takes its eye off the ball: Why Apple fans are really coming to hate Apple software – LA Times

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Senior citizens may accept robot helpers, but fear robot masters | Penn State University

The participants in the study indicated they saw robots as useful in three aspects of their lives: physical, informational and interactional. They felt most comfortable with robots as helpers and butlers, according to Sundar. Older adults also seemed more likely to accept robots that provide them information and entertainment, according to the researchers.Seniors, however, may be less likely to use robots that are designed to be more autonomous. An autonomous robot can make its own decisions and may not need to wait for a senior’s commands to engage in a task.”It is clear senior citizens want robots to play passive and non-confrontational roles,” said Sundar. “Seniors do not mind having robots as companions, but they worry about the potential loss of control over social order to robots.”

Source: Senior citizens may accept robot helpers, but fear robot masters | Penn State University

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Energy-friendly chip can perform powerful artificial-intelligence tasks | MIT News

A few years back, I remember reading a prediction that, within a decade, we’d have the equivalent of IBM’s Watson A.I. on our smartphones.  This could put us one step closer to that reality.

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week, MIT researchers presented a new chip designed specifically to implement neural networks. It is 10 times as efficient as a mobile GPU, so it could enable mobile devices to run powerful artificial-intelligence algorithms locally, rather than uploading data to the Internet for processing.

Source: Energy-friendly chip can perform powerful artificial-intelligence tasks | MIT News